No, the first is scatter, the second absorption. Might need to adjust the values a bit more but basically to me, absorption is the better of the two in this case.
Sand sort of curves up behind the sky plane, though I suppose with the volume shader I no longer need to do that.
Yeah, I saw that when I saw that you had replied. It’s annoying when that happens.
In the absorbtion image it looks like the sand stops a bit too soon. Can you post a wireframe screen shot in ortho side view of all of the sand and the water (just use the opengl render feature found at the bottom of the 3D view). I want to see the actual shape of the sand.
Also I think density might be a bit high.
For lightning, all you need is a sun lamp and the world background.
Ok. I’d say get rid of the bump up at the left hand side and make the sand less steep. With the density you probably don’t want it to show up until the sand gets to be at the red.
My thery is that the scattering doesn’t effect where the water meets the beach. I think it would only effect areas where the scattering has been overlayed (the red) enough that it shows up.
Not had much time to work on this lately, so just a small update now taking all your points into it.
Removing the slant up on the left leaves that empty bit just past the end of the dock, but the rest of it’s not so bad now.
Also dropped the glossiness a bit, was a bit too much for me.
Slowly but surely getting there!
I would make the sand go beyond the water and decrease in height.
This is looking really good! 
wow this is really looking super. Keep it up
I like the progress. Thank you for sharing. The only thing I can add, is that the dock angle is odd. I live in Michigan which seems to have endless lakes and you just don’t see docks coming out from shore at an acute angle. They always come out at a 90.
Thanks guys, glad you like it!
Angle of the dock? yeah, it’s a bit weird. I’ve only seen one or two docks in real life, and they were more or less 90 degrees as far as I can remember (maybe an Irish thing?). But the angle of the shore in this is actually the pink line in the picture. Just the position of the camera I’d say as to why it looks off. Open to interpretation 
Now to make some sandcastles!
I would say it’s a weird angle. If you post a top view we’ll be able to tell a bit better.
Hey =) Good work so far, but as some feedback, what I personally would like to see is deference in the wetness of the sand.
If it’s possible, my feedback would be to make the part of the sand closest to your water of your beach more reflective so it will look wetter like in this photograph.
That is actually a brilliant idea! Can’t believe I forgot that!
Not much progress in this one, started on the wet sand towards the water, which needs a lot more work. I’d say a gradient would help blend the two sands together. Much work to do.
Also threw in a lil sand castle, gonna make a much more epic one by the time this is finished!
You should use a texture instead of just changing the material. Gradiant might work.
Was away over the weekend with just the laptop, plenty of time to work on this. Didn’t get as much physical progress as I’d like, but got some more ideas to work on!
Fixed up the dry/wet sand a bit. Also added some palm leaves, which need a lil bit more work.
And there is method in the madness of the glass bottle
